A person who doesn't require vitamins is a rare find. Our food production methods (over farming, use of pesticides) coupled with the burgeoning fast food industry and poor cooking methods (over cooking, deep-frying) play a key role in depriving our bodies of important nutrients. When nutrient deficiencies interact with high levels of stress and little or no exercise, they result in lifestyle diseases like type II diabetes, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure etc.

It is clear from the growing incidence of lifestyle diseases that the food that we eat today does not provide us with optimum nutrients required to maintain a positive state of health. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide adequate nutrients if they are picked when ripe and eaten immediately. Today that is not possible as they are picked before they are ripe and then treated with chemicals to "appear" ripe but do not have the nutritional value of ripe vegetables. These "fresh" fruits and vegetables lose further nutrients as they travel from the farm to your kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, we overcook, deep fry, mishmash our food and even reheat the leftovers thus creating nutritional disasters. Such food has not more than 25 per cent nutrient value left in it. Therefore we cannot think of getting adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals only through food. Micronutrient deficiencies over a period of time reflect in terms of falling hair, lack lustre skin, weight gain, uncontrollable hunger, sugar cravings, low energy levels, mood swings, skin rash etc. Read more on this at: